After 6 years of being a fat activist, there isn’t much that makes my jaw drop in astonishment any more. I’ve seen every pathetic excuse for fat hate that is out there, trolls stopped being original about 5 and a half years ago, and you name the creepy, cheesy, fatphobic trope in media, I’ve seen it.
But this week, I got a request that absolutely astonished me. Take a look at this:
My first reaction was to just blink in astonishment.
My second reaction was to see red and for steam come out of my ears.
I think reality tv is crap to begin with. It’s unimaginative, cut rate content that only exists because the industry is too cheap to pay for good content. But this really takes the cake.
I am utterly astonished that in the year 2015 anyone would consider a fat person in a relationship as “unique”. Do they honestly think that approaching a known fat activist looking for “couples that are either in extraordinary situations or in uncommon relationships” is an acceptable thing to do? Do they honestly believe that a fat person in a relationship is somehow an “extraordinary situation” or an “uncommon relationship”? If they do, that speaks volumes about their attitude to fat people.
We are not freaks. We are not a fetish. We’re not even “uncommon” – we make up 60% of the population. Being treated like fat people in relationships as being something unique or extraordinary is really dehumanising. The suggestion is that nobody “normal” could really love a fat person. Only “unique” and “extraordinary” and “uncommon” people love fat people. Which is a coded way to suggest weirdos and freaks.
Fat people live the same lives as everyone else. We have careers, we have relationships, we have families, we pay taxes, we are educated… we have lives. There is nothing “unique” about it. The only thing different is the way people treat us because of our bodies. As if we are not human beings.
Fat Heffalump 